The Nexus 7 pros/cons

[majp89]

So the Nexus 7 is my first ACTUAL owned tablet, but I have played with many as I am one of two IT guys at work whom have a nice relationship with different vendors. Therefore, we get to test out many products. I have used tablets from Lenovo, Apple, Samsung, and Motorola. I wasn't satisfied with any of the Android tablets that were currently out on the market, especially the 7" tablets like the Fire and Nook, considering they were meant more for an e-reader than doing anything that required a lot of processing power.

While watching Google's conference a few months ago, I saw the Nexus 7. I was impressed that it had a quad core processor, something I thought would be unparalleled in a 7 inch tablet for a while. I love getting my hands on the new Android installments (my Razr took forever to get ICS) so this was widely appealing to me that I would get to go straight to 4.1. I was impressed with the hardware, the high resolution (1200x800), the bonded display technology, etc., so I preordered it immediately.

I went on vacation and when I got home it was sitting in a box for me waiting to be played with. I opened it up, configured it, and spent hours (until 5 a.m. even though I had just got on a horrible nightmare of a flight from Atlanta) playing with it. It was quick, didn't lag when navigating, had a bright, vivid display, everything. I was so impressed.

So here I am a few weeks later, and now there are some issues starting to catch my eye. First is the screen flickering. I noticed it initially in low-light settings, but now it is doing it no matter where I am. It flickers so much that I feel like I'm going to have a seizure reading the screen. It's an obvious light-sensor issue, something that I'm sure a custom app somewhere could take care of. Still annoying, nonetheless.

The second issue is the touch screen will stop fully functioning for a while, and the tablet will act as if it is running on one core. Music will skip/pause for a second and then come back on. If I'm playing a game (which run so smooth when the tablet is fully functioning by the way) I will be unable to use swipe functions such as in Temple Run the jump swipe or turn. Really annoying. It also does this when I'm using the browser. If I'm typing something, it will type on its own or auto-complete will cause it to lag. If I hit backspace, it auto-fills in for me. Very annoying.

The third issue for me is the lack of flash support. This was an obvious one for many and it is not Nexus 7's fault, it is Google. I understand Flash cut off their support for it, but still. Many sites STILL USE FLASH, and most likely will for a long time because it is expensive to switch!!!! When trying to justify the purchase of a tablet to your technologically retarded significant other, the lack of flash support when navigating websites is not very convincing!

The other nuances such as lack of ports and removable memory do not bother me because costing 200 bucks I knew there were going to be some sacrifices. I am really hoping that Google goes all out with something like this seeing as there are other tablets coming out like Surface.

Hopefully after a few software updates Google will address these issues that I am dealing with, but all-in-all, I couldn't be happier with a 7 inch tablet. For those of you complaining about the lack of storage, go out and get a Drive account It's like 2.5 bucks for 25GB of storage, a worthy investment.

[Undo]

Sounds like yours is defective.

As for Flash, blame Adobe, not Google.

[bsntech]

I, too, have noticed a screen flicker with mine as well when it seems to brighten or darken the screen.

The other issue - as you mentioned - is the touch screen.  But like I mentioned in a previous post, I only notice it when the room temp - or temperature of surrounding air - is close to body temperature.

I understand that capacitive screens work based on electrical current and not temperature - but why does there seem to be an issue when using it in hot locations...

[S.Prime]

@majp89

Thanks for your bash/praise of the Nexus 7 and I accept it as an honest opinion. I suggest that items 1 and 2 could prove to be a hardware issue, but defend the solution to flash posted in this topic.

[majp89]

@majp89

Thanks for your bash/praise of the Nexus 7 and I accept it as an honest opinion. I suggest that items 1 and 2 could prove to be a hardware issue, but defend the solution to flash posted in this topic.

I meant to say that it was Adobe's fault for pulling support. However, I still believe Google should have supported it for at least one more year until a majority of the flash sites die out and are replaced with HTML 5.

[S.Prime]

I would guess that Google made the decision to omit Flash in JB since Adobe dropped Flash support and will not provide security updates after the middle of August.

[Portsider]

Agree totally with prime on the 'security update' statement. Heck, anyone that owns a pc can attest to the fact that 'flash' security updates seems like an every-other-day event. As far as my own NX7 is concerned, I haven't experienced any of the screen  issues described above.

[DaveS]

Rounded and fair comments. There are a couple of work arounds for getting flash working, but in general I agree not having it OTB is a nuisance.
 Can the screen issue be resolved by setting a fixed brightness level rather than the default 'auto'?

[Tiny]

Apple has never allowed Flash and they seem to be doing alright.  I use a Flash blocker on my main computer and seldom allow it to run.  I can definitely live without Flash on my tablet(s).

[Undo]

I'd say the main "pro" of the Nexus 7 is the display. Great display! I've seen an iPad 3 with its retina display only at stores so haven't used one much but I'd say it has very little over the N7. Perhaps with a magnifying glass I could tell a difference.

The only significant "con," in my opinion is that the Nexus 7 isn't smaller than it is. I have no use for the half inch (three quarters top and bottom) border around the display. It would be sooo much easier to handle, and to pocket, if it were that much smaller.